Meaning & Origins

Mainly U.S.: medieval vernacular form of Randolf. This was in common use as a given name into the 17th century and gave rise to a surname. In modern use the given name is often a transferred use of this surname.

English: occupational name for a hunter, Old English hunta (a primary derivative of huntian ‘to hunt’). The term was used not only of the hunting on horseback of game such as stags and wild boars, which in the Middle Ages was a pursuit restricted to the ranks of the nobility, but also to much humbler forms of pursuit such as bird catching and poaching for food. The word seems also to have been used as an Old English personal name and to have survived into the Middle Ages as an occasional personal name. Compare Huntington and Huntley.